Spotify Acquires SoundBetter, the Leading Music and Audio Production Talent Marketplace

Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT), the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service, today announced that it has acquired SoundBetter, a leading global audio production and collaboration marketplace helping creators worldwide connect and hire top audio professionals. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“As we build out our tools for creators, we want to give them the resources they need to thrive. SoundBetter has the same vision,” said Beckwith Kloss, VP Product, Creator at Spotify. “We're excited that creators can generate income through SoundBetter, as well as benefit from its network of top professionals - from instrumentalists to songwriters to producers - as they perfect their tracks.”

SoundBetter taps into the growing market of audio professionals looking to create better sounding content and searching for partners to advance their work. Since its founding in 2012, SoundBetter has helped tens of thousands of music professionals buy and offer services across the globe. It has a community of more than 180,000 artists registered on its network.

“SoundBetter offers the most comprehensive global marketplace for music and audio production professionals for hire in the world along with a member community spanning 176 countries and 14,000 cities worldwide,” said SoundBetter Co-Founder and CEO Shachar Gilad. “We are excited to benefit from Spotify’s global scale, resources, and vision to expand our network and drive more economic opportunities for artists of all levels.”

Spotify continues to invest in developing powerful tools to help creators create, connect and grow their audience, and have an opportunity to live off their work. SoundBetter will join the Spotify for Artists family to work toward this mission. Spotify for Artists provides valuable services like insights, profile management and promotion tools to the more than 400,000 artists and their teams using the platform today. This acquisition will give the artists and their teams on Spotify for Artists the chance to discover SoundBetter — as a way to find collaborators, produce great music or generate additional income.

About SoundBetter

SoundBetter is the world’s leading music production marketplace, helping musicians worldwide connect and hire top music pros so they can get to great-sounding release-ready songs.

With tens of thousands of top Singers, Producers, and Mixing & Mastering Engineers, including dozens of Grammy Award winners, SoundBetter has the most comprehensive community of vetted music production pros for direct hire in the world, and a member group spanning over 14,000 cities worldwide.

With its transparency, verified reviews, trust, top-tier talent and growing customer base, SoundBetter has become the defacto LinkedIn for music professionals.

About Spotify Technology S.A.

Spotify transformed music listening forever when we launched in 2008. Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by these creators. Everything we do is driven by our love for music.

Discover, manage, and share over 50 million tracks for free, or upgrade to Spotify Premium to access exclusive features including offline mode, improved sound quality, Spotify Connect and ad-free listening.

Today, we are the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with a community of more than 232 million users, including 108 million Spotify Premium subscribers, across 79 markets.

For more information, images, or to contact the press team, please head over to our press page at https://newsroom.spotify.com/.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

We would like to caution you certain of the above statements represent “forward-looking statements” as defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The words “may,” “might,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “seek,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “contemplate,” “possible,” and similar words are intended to identify estimates and forward-looking statements. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and include this statement for purposes of complying with the safe harbor provisions. Such forward-looking statements involve significant risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections, including but not limited to the following known material factors: our ability to attract prospective users and to retain existing users; our dependence upon third-party licenses for sound recordings and musical compositions; our lack of control over the providers of our content and their effect on our access to music and other content; our ability to generate sufficient revenue to be profitable or to generate positive cash flow on a sustained basis; our ability to comply with the many complex license agreements to which we are a party; our ability to accurately estimate the amounts payable under our license agreements; the limitations on our operating flexibility due to the minimum guarantees required under certain of our license agreements; our ability to obtain accurate and comprehensive information about music compositions in order to obtain necessary licenses or perform obligations under our existing license agreements; potential breaches of our security systems; assertions by third parties of infringement or other violations by us of their intellectual property rights; competition for users and user listening time; our ability to accurately estimate our user metrics and other estimates; risks associated with manipulation of stream counts and user accounts and unauthorized access to our services; changes in legislation or governmental regulations affecting us; ability to hire and retain key personnel; our ability to maintain, protect, and enhance our brand; risks associated with our international expansion, including difficulties obtaining rights to stream music on favorable terms; risks relating to the acquisition, investment, and disposition of companies or technologies; dilution resulting from additional share issuances; tax-related risks; the concentration of voting power among our founders who have and will continue to have substantial control over our business; risks related to our status as a foreign private issuer; international, national or local economic, social or political conditions; risks associated with accounting estimates, currency fluctuations and foreign exchange controls; and such other risks as set forth in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190912005242/en/

Contact information

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Paul Vogel
ir@spotify.com

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Dustee Jenkins
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